Tag: biography

Being Molested on the Tube Today by Six Youths

18.06.2024

As I was going home on the Tube after The Royal Opera House and Hyde Park in the Rose gardens, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked around. There was no one there. I ignored it. Then it happened again. I looked at the woman walking next to me. She was looking at me but as soon as I turned my head she looked away and walked on. Then, I felt the tap again a few moments later. And this time I caught the prankster. It was a youth dressed in the boring black that is the horrible uniform of all of these people in this country and demonstrates their sickening conformity.

I told this young man off even though he had five other youths with him. All of them towered above me at six and a half feet. I did not care. Because I won’t let a stranger touch me whenever they want because I have self-respect. Because the only honourable thing is to stand up to these disgusting people that want to ruin someone’s day by invading their personal space and agitating them after a day’s work. He smiled insolently in my face. He stood next to me on the escalator down, smiling all the way. When we came off the escalator, I told off all the other ones too because they were accusing each other and hiding in their group like the little cowards that they were.

Everyone walking with us walked quickly away leaving me alone by myself with the youths. What do you expect from the people in London and this society? No one will ever help you. That’s why you have to fight your own battles.

The pretended to say sorry – because they were little cowards. Then, as I walked away, one of them tapped me on the shoulder again. I ignored it. I walked off. They all laughed. They thought that they had won.

They hadn’t won. All that had happened was that there was nothing else to do without resorting to violence. Because in this country, the law does not protect you. It can only punish you if you react according to how a honourable man should in that situation. The law protects the cowards.

I got home and told someone what happened and she was scared. About what? They are cowards. They can’t stand up to a real man. And what if something had happened? There is a principle involved. I don’t care how many there are. In the end, I was satisfied with my behaviour.

The Wisdom of Stones

17.06.2024

Hard. Unyielding. Dead. A stubborn thing a stone. Yet, even so, there are men that make love to the stone.

And as I think about the stone, a memory glides up from the depths. A memory from childhood.

As was often the case with my grandfather, a fine day would mean a fine walk. It was a habit he instilled in me, walking for a long time and talking for a long time. Even today, with some of my closest friends, we will walk for three or four hours after work or a whole day if I am not working. Walking and talking. With my grandfather, I would be his closest companion because I was his crutch. He was partially sighted. So he would clasp my arm and I would be his eyes and feet, scanning the ground for him and crossing the road with him.

The walk that day took us up to some factories in Essex – my grandfather was visiting us from London on that occasion with my grandmother. And then we noticed that the floor was strewn with pebbles.

‘Did you know…’ my grandfather began, ‘that there are a type of stone which confers wisdom?’ My grandfather came from the generation that believe in magic. He attributed his first job after his university degree to a visit to the Hanuman temple in the mountains. He believed in witchcraft and black magic.

‘The stones that you need to find have bands in them. If you find a stone with one band in it, then that is the first step towards knowledge. If you find a stone with two bands in it, then that is the second step towards knowledge. And if you find a stone with three bands within it, then that is the third step towards knowledge… What do you say, will you find?’

I remember scrabbling in the stones on the ground, picking up one after the other, absorbed in the quest to find these stones that conferred wisdom. Incredibly, or fatefully, in just one search of thirty minutes, I found each of the wisdom stones that my grandfather had mentioned.

I have kept them my whole life.

Later on in life, we were at a training session at a place that I volunteered and they asked us to bring some personal items in. I brought the wisdom stones. I described what they were and where I found them. I told her that I took them into my ‘A’ Level exams with me as luck. The trainer asked me if I believed in them. I said no. Then she asked me how I did in school. I told her that I was the top student with six ‘A’ Levels and with ‘A’ grades. She would not believe that I did not believe in the stones. I tried to explain to her – she did not understand. They were the memory of my grandfather and his stories.

Why is the wisdom in the stone? The stone appears to be durable, resilient, strong and eternal. Knowledge itself we feel would have those qualities within it. And the bands? They are unique. And they add layers to the stone. Knowledge itself is multi-layered. The more the layers, the more knowledge the stone confers. The more nuance, appreciation, insight. For about thirty years I have carried these knowledge stones with me. And I know that they are heavy. Because knowledge itself is heavy. It is a load to bear throughout life.

And the stone is also plain. It looks like nothing. It is worth nothing to most people. Because the world is ruled by the ignorant that hate wisdom. Not the wise.

Who to share the stones with? Who to share the burden with? One day, there will be an heir. The bearer of the stone that is knowledge.